Customer Service Rep Is Both ‘Master’ and Servant

Mickey’s Larry Jacobs: a “Master” in the World Tae Know Do and customer service.

It’s a couple of ticks away from noon on a work day and Larry Jacobs, Mickey’s Customer Service Representative, is ready to go to lunch when his phone rings. A number pops up on the Caller ID window but he pays no attention; he just picks up the phone like he does every time it rings. On the other end of the line is a Mickey customer who needs some help with a lift gate on a van body. Today Larry will skip lunch, but the caller didn’t skip a beat. He got his truck loaded and on the road without delay.

“That’s what I do,” says Larry. “It’s never about me, it’s always about the customer. When you work in customer service you can count on one thing: every call you get is from someone who needs help. I want to be the one who helps them. It’s a very rewarding experience; a breadth of fresh air for me.”

Larry recently received his fifth degree black belt and is recognized as a “Master” in the World Tae Know Do Federation, where he has studied for over 13 years in the Moo duk Kwan technique, a style centered on attacking the body’s various vital points. He admits that the training is “mentally and physically demanding,” but that it gives him an air of confidence in knowing that while he can fend off predators with lethal force, he understands that his best defense is to “ignore argumentative confrontations” and avoid trouble in the first place.

Not a bad mantra for a Customer Service Representative, either. Mickey President Dean Sink believes there is a correlation between Larry’s pastime and his profession. “Most people stay in a customer service role for a couple of years because it can be so stressful and demanding,” according to Dean. “Your entire job is dealing with problems, and that takes a toll. On the other hand, Larry has excelled in his job for 10 years, and I think his training in Tae Know Do has helped him succeed in his role here at Mickey. He has a calmness about him, as if he knows that there is nothing so big that he can’t handle. He has tremendous control of his emotions.”

Larry offers another explanation for his success in he job. He says with a smile, “I live by the golden rule — ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ I make sure that the customers’ experience leaves them knowing that they can rely on Mickey Truck Bodies to deliver a product and service they can count on.”